The College Thread - TTLG Forums

Aerothorn on 24/12/2006 at 05:04

So, I've been wanting to post this for a while but am only doing so now that I know where I'm going. I got accepted to Hampshire College in Massachusets and am pretty excited about it (though am trying to keep realistic expectations, i.e. being miserable my first year).

But my question for the TTLG crowd is: what did you do after high school? Did you go to college/university/other form of higher education? If so, where? If not, what did you do?

Celtic_Thief on 24/12/2006 at 05:18

About being miserable your first year, I cannot stress enough that you make some friends there, especially if it's far from home. I don't make friends fast, and my room-mate moved out after a month,(We got along fine, just one of his friends that he knew before this college experience ended up needing a room-mate) so I didn't really make any until the last night there(A bunch of guys from on my floor took me out drinking). So I was miserable to the point that I seriously contemplated suicide, as a result I'm taking a couple courses at a local community college/working this semester at home and transferring to another college next year.

Edit: And I see that you would be far from home.

SD on 24/12/2006 at 05:49

All I can say is you're at a major disadvantage in the USA in not being able to go out boozing at university. In the UK, everyone goes out and gets rat-arsed in the first week of uni, and that sees you right for the rest of the year. By the time I got to my second year in the States, and only being 19, I had to resort to more "wholesome" methods of socialising like playing basketball and (hlaurgh) going out for pizza. It was like being 12 fucking years old again, except I was more mature at 12 than Yank guys are at 19 (not the chicks; the chicks are 19 going on 30). So yeah, too bad USA, you fucked over your adolescents with that one.

The Alchemist on 24/12/2006 at 05:50

Quote Posted by Strontium Dog

Woah hold on there buddy, what fucking boring ass college did you go to cause round here it's non stop drinking and worse substances.

SD on 24/12/2006 at 05:54

Yeah but where you are is virtually Mexico

Celtic_Thief on 24/12/2006 at 05:55

Quote Posted by Strontium Dog

In the UK, everyone goes out and gets rat-arsed in the first week of uni,

That's how it was for me. For the first 4 days all I did was smoke and drink, though I went to a school kind of known for partying but I'm pretty sure it's the same at almost all campuses.

Me not making friends was all on me and my personality. It's one of my flaws that I'm working on.

Rug Burn Junky on 24/12/2006 at 06:30

What kind of a social leper can't figure out a way to get drunk in college in the states?

There are a lot of reasons why the 21 drinking age is fucked up, but effectively stopping college students from drinking isn't actually one of them.

oudeis on 24/12/2006 at 06:40

Quote Posted by Strontium Dog

Yeah but where you are is virtually Mexico

What in the uttermost fuck are you talking about, you mouth-breathing cretinoid?

PigLick on 24/12/2006 at 08:56

ok, I will answer this one with a bit of seriousness. I left high school in what is year 11 in australia, not sure how that translates to US highschools, but it was the year I turned 16. So, I never did my university entrance exams. I then went through a series of crap low-wage jobs, checkout operator at supermarkets, office cleaning, those sort of jobs. They sucked.
So, I then went through a 2 year period of living of social welfare, bumming around, playing shitloads of guitar, and general hell-raising, which was actually really good fun, for a while. Then I decided I needed to do something a bit more serious with my life, so I really worked on my musical chops, auditioned for a University Jazz/Contemporary degree, and got in! I then did 3 years of jazz, after that I have been constantly working in the music industry in some fashion or another.
So, I guess the point of this little ramble is that its never too late to go to uni/college, and I benefited from taking time off education for a while, because it really drove home the advantage of having that education.

haha longest post by piglick

David on 24/12/2006 at 09:24

I left high school at 16 with good grades and took the fairly natural path of taking A-Levels. After a term or so I decided that I didn't like where this was going, and that I would be dedicating the next 6 or so years of my life to obtaining something that would probably only be useful in getting my first 'proper' job and a chunk of debt, so I left.

I joined a Modern Apprenticeship scheme and worked in a supermarket while waiting for the next interviewing window to come round. A few months later I was interviewed by a OEM Power Electronics company and landed a job as an Electronics Apprentice.
This lasted for about 3 months when a position opened up in the engineering department for someone to program software to test and qualify the products the company produced / would produce as well as some ancillary software that was just helpful.

About eighteen months later I hit the peak of my game and was the sole full time programmer for Europe and Asia. At the same time I was taking Day Release courses at a nearby university and ended up with several qualifications in Electrical & Electronic Engineering which was pretty neat as it allowed me to get a better understanding of what I was actually testing and qualifying.

I left after four and a half years as there was little room for promotion without ditching the software side of things which I really didn't want to do.

I now work as the Lead Developer for a Design Studio and fucking love it.

So I guess the moral of my story is that you don't need to go to University to get anywhere, at least not in this country.